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Second "Design Recharge" Interview: April 1, 2015In this second interview with Diane Gibbs at "Design Recharge" we focus on International Fake Journal Month. If you're wondering just what that is, I give a great description of it, and why you might want to participate. Also check out our earlier interview (below on this list) if you want more information about how I approach visual journaling.

First "Design Recharge" Interview: February 12, 2015Diane Gibbs of Design Recharge interviewed me for International Fake Journal Month (2015). We get a little side tracked and talk a lot about sketching, visual journaling, and my creative process. It's a great interview.

Where Is Roz Blogging?

Podcasts with Roz

Danny Gregory and I Discuss Visual JournalingSadly a two part podcast from May 2008 made with Danny Gregory, author of "An Illustrated Life," is not currently available. We talked about journaling, art media, and materials…If this becomes available again in the future I will let you know.

Finding Bits of TimeRicë Freeman-Zachery, author of "Creative Time and Space," talks to me about finding time to be creative. (Taped October 23, 2009.)

watercolor board

September 28, 2016

Left: 9 x 12 inch mixed media sketch of a rooster on 9 x 12 inch watercolor board (Canson). Sketch made with extra bold Uni Posca Pen (orange), then Sakura Pigma Fine Brush Pen (solid felt tip). Next painted with gouache, Montana Acrylic marker (background which was then painted over with darker blue gouache), white gouache, and Sharpie waterbased paint pen. The gouache was applied with a two small flats (each less than 1/2 inch wide, and a fine point round 00). There is some smudging of the paint with my fingers (throat) and some restating of the black ink lines as I try to decide what most appeals to me—disappearing lines or visible lines. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

Today’s post is also Minnesota State Fair related. After sketching for about 28 hours over the course of 4 visits to the Fair, I wasn’t ready to give up sketching roosters. And because I’d been working with physical limitations at the Fair I wanted to play more than I’d been able to do at the Fair.

So one day after the Fair ended I turned on some of my chicken video that I made at this year’s Fair and sketched the image in this post.

I used a 9 x 12 inch watercolor board like those I’d taken on my first Fair trip this year. But the rest of the chicken is so totally mixed media that he got over done, but in a fun way for me. I had fun making every mark.

This approach isn’t something I can do at the Fair because it would involve standing for 30 minutes in one crowded spot with people bumping into me as I shuffled 10 different tools through my hands.

It seems inevitable that at some point in my life I’ll have to raise chickens.

ATTENTION—HELPER WANTED

After my experiences this year I am actively looking for a supplies assistant (i.e., carrier) for the 2017 Minnesota State Fair. I'll post more about that at a later date, but if you know someone local who has the stamina to carry about 30 extra pounds for 6 hours and won't be bored out of his/her skull standing silently next to me while I sketch, let me know.

This will be a paid position, and include a small stipend for food. When the sketching is done for the day the assistant will of course be free to go and explore the Fair alone. I plan to go four times next year and hope to find four helpers. I'm thinking there might be some college kids who think it's an easy way to make some cash and enjoy the Fair—but I realize that's pretty naive as they will all probably have real jobs for the whole summer. I can hope. Otherwise I am so screwed!

One of the great things about the aftermath of sketching at the Minnesota State Fair is that there is usually paper or board, or whatever it was I used, left over.

So for the next little bit I'll be working on watercolor boards here and there to use it all up.

This year at the Fair I worked the first trip with 9 x 12 inch watercolor boards, and the last trip with those boards cut in half (to reduce the weight of the materials I had to carry).

I really enjoyed working on this watercolor board.

1. It isn't as nice or easy a surface to work on as Arches Watercolor Boards. The Arches has better sizing and makes lifting easier and more effortless, though of course it depends on the staining nature of the pigment you're lifting.

2. Sometimes the Canson Watercolor Board surface almost repels paint. I found this to be true when I was painting up to and over Pentel Pocket Brush Pen or Pentel pigment brush pen ink lines, as well as lines made with the Sakura fiber tipped brush pens. It's something you sort of have to see. I'll see if at some point we can't get it on video. But for now just be aware of it. I found ways to work around it so it's not a problem in my mind.

3. The boards are nice and stiff and easy to hold when you are standing and sketching.

4. The cold press texture is tight and small and it's still easy to work with color pencil or fine tipped ink pens on this board. (There will be examples in my 2016 Minnesota State Fair Journal, but they haven't been scanned yet.)

5. The Canson Plein Air Watercolor Pad seemed like a good idea, but in the field, in practice it isn't—here's why. The boards are all joined on one wide side by perfect binding—pad glue. In that way you can in theory carry them around in the field with you and use one, turn it over, and use another. It doesn't work like that in life. You can turn a board over and it can break the glue and fall off the pad. It's a lot to juggle.

Additionally if you want to work with the single board it is sometimes IMPOSSIBLE to pull it off the pad. And sometimes when you do pull it off, if you aren't extremely careful, you can tear into the working surface of the board.

I test everything at home before I take it into the field and I discovered all this at home. I took the pads apart and carried individual boards in a large pouch. I would strongly suggest that you do likewise if you use this product.

A surprising negative—Nichiban artist's masking tape PULLS up the surface of this board, even if only left on for 30 minutes. I've been using this tape for years and it never pulls up the paper fibers of a paper unless it's a soft printmaking paper. On a heavily sized watercolor board I wasn't expecting it to pull the paper up—and I am expert at gently pulling tape off at just the right angle so as to not catch anything!!!

Even tape that had only been on for 30 minutes or less had the potential to pull up the surface. Sometimes the pull up was great, and can be visible on the scans I've done so far. Other times it was minimal. There was no rhyme or reason for where or when this would happen. It was not where I had pressed the tape down the hardest, or pushed with additional weight from my fingers as I held the board and sketched.

Because the effect/interaction is random this makes it a non-useful approach for me to use tape when working with this board. That's a shame because the sketches I did on this board with a uniform masked border looked really spiffy.

When will I work with this watercolor board instead of Arches Watercolor Board?

I'll use this board for the next few weeks or more as I use up the stockpile I purchased thinking I'd take it every day to the Fair. (I went a little overboard to ensure I would have enough and not only bought some locally but ordered some on sale mail order. I'm glad I did, it's cheaper for me to work on this board than to use paper. The sale is still on at Jerry's Artarama. I am not connected with them except as a customer.)

If I run out of this board and want to work on board (I've been doing watercolor board experiments since April when I did my International Fake Journal Month Journal on Arches Watercolor Boards) I will certainly buy this board again IF IT IS ON SALE.

But I will not purchase this board again at full price as I think Arches Watercolor Boards are a better product that doesn't have all the fuss related to the pad.

(This padded product also comes in a Mixed Media Board and an Illustration Board. I'm still testing both of those and haven't had time to work with them enough to review them. There are some other options Canson makes that weren't interesting to me. I'll write more when I've worked with them.)

The 2016 Minnesota State Fair is over and I've come away with a lot of sketches—yes mostly birds, but even that has a long story that goes with it.

I'm still scanning the sketches I made on my four trips to the Fair. It was a stressful 12 days which involved moving my father-in-law into long term care (we are still clearing his apartment, but he is doing very well) and some physical set backs for me (my arm and shoulder are holding up wonderfully, don't worry about them).

While I sort all that out I thought you might enjoy seeing this NOT-A-STATE-FAIR-SKETCH.

This is a test within what was one great big test—my Fair trips for 2016.

On my first visit to the Fair I took 9 x 12 inch watercolor boards. On my next two visits which were the sketch out days I took a Strathmore 500 series Mixed Media 7.75 x 9.75 inch soft covered journal, and on the final visit I took 6 x 9 inch watercolor boards (which were the large boards cut in half).

That's where this sketch comes in. Between the first three visits and my last Fair trip Dick and I began moving C.R. to long term care, and I began to think about what I wanted to take on my final visit, because it was clear I wouldn't get more than one more trip in. I had really enjoyed working at on the watercolor boards but didn't want to deal with the weight (believe me I didn't want to carry anything!!!).

I decided that if I cut the boards in half I could still take them but not have all that weight to carry.

The above sketch, done while watching video I'd taken at the Fair, was an attempt to see if I could scale down my portraits to fit in the size board I'd be using. I thought it worked great so I did take these half boards on my last trip to the 2016 Fair.

You can see more sketches from this year's Fair at the Twin Cities Urban Sketchers Facebook Page.

We had great turnouts on both sketch out days. We had people working in a variety of media. We had (despite a little bit of rain one day) great weather.

I look forward to sharing more of my Fair experience as I get images scanned. I'll be putting things together into a short little video. But you will hear all the details, believe me because a lot happened at the Fair this year. Right now I have to get back to my father-in-law's old independent living apartment and continue clearing stuff out…

August 24, 2016

Left: The scan of my second chicken test on the Canson Plein Air Watercolor Board (cold press). This is 9 x 12 inches and done with a Uni Posca Marker, the Pentel Pigment Brush Pen with the squeezy barrel, a Montana Acrylic Marker, and Daniel Smith Watercolors applied with a Niji water brush. Completed under "simulated" Minnesota State Fair Sketching conditions—no crowds, heat, or smell of ammonia. You can see the earlier stages at later points in this post. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

The other day someone wrote in and asked me how I managed to hold my palette and journal while sketching. I don’t have a photo of that, though students who have taken my “Beginning” class in Sketchbook Skool, or my “Drawing Practice: Sketching Live Subjects in Public” class here on Roz Wound Up, have seen me hold these items in the demos. (See information about these classes here.)

While I don’t have a photo of myself doing this to post today I have added it to the list of essential shots that Dick needs to get of me when we go to the Fair and shoot a couple sketching demos next week.

I will post a photo of me holding my gear sometime after Labor Day and write about it then.

The question did give me pause for a moment.

I know I’m taking a huge risk by deciding to draw and paint on the heaviest board available. (OK, I could have elected to take Clayboard™ and that would have been heavier, but even in my youth you wouldn’t have caught me lugging 20 pieces of 9 x 12 inch Clayboard™ around all day.)

The Fair isn’t just a day out sketching for me. I sketch out all day at least a couple days a month. I sketch out during a portion of almost each day for at least 30 to 90 minutes. That's my personal sketching time.

The Fair is the only series of days in the year, besides November 11, that I know, on January 1, I will be “taking off” and not working (though some might look at how I approach sketching as work). The Fair is like is my big yearly “trip.” As such it gets special consideration on several levels.

But the basic, never varied level, is that I have to have fun. I have to be gathering information in my sketches. I have to be challenging myself in some way. While even my regular daily sketching out contains experiments and challenges the Fair is really what I’m in training for the rest of my life.

This year, because I’m still dealing with the shoulder injury (which was doing just great until I decided I was feeling so great I could downsize my belongings and clean out entire rooms, and run all sorts of errands in preparation for a road trip—until no amount of physical therapy could help that stupid decision), I’ve been a little hesitant to set a goal for myself. The main goal is to just get through the two 8-hour sketch out days, another day of filming demos with Dick, and enjoy at least another day or two where I just go wild (in my sketching)—at least that’s always sort of the plan.

How am I going to do that when last week I couldn’t even grasp a pen? (For one thing I started dictating everything on the computer!)

Well, when I was asked how I hold my palette and stand and sketch (you can read my response at the end of this post, and I’ll post about it after Labor Day) I suddenly realized I’d better at least stand with one of these boards and sketch and paint on it (while standing) before I go off to the Fair for the first time this year. It is different to hold a book which bends at the gutter, than to hold a flat, inflexible piece.

So Monday, I strapped on all my gear—or as Dick likes to call it—“Your Batman Utility Belt,” fully loaded. (Yes the boards are going to be heavy but they will hang from my hips and I’ll be able to handle that as there is no pull on my shoulders.)

Next I turned on a chicken video (yes, I have lots of chicken videos I’ve taken over the years, don’t you?) and stood back from the computer and sketched. The image opening this post is the result.

I’m happy to say that I had no problems holding my square watercolor palette when it came time to paint.

“We are good to go,” as Houston and I like to say before “road trips.” (My tendency to impart expeditionary qualities to even the simplest of outings, e.g., going grocery shopping, is something that Dick finds endlessly amusing.)

Does this mean that I’m going to get lovely portraits (I think her portrait is lovely) like the image above? Probably not. It will be hot; I will be achy; my hand and shoulder will complain; people will jostle me; I’ll probably have more than one Dole Swirl (come on folks it’s the FAIR)…Besides, one of the things I love about the Fair is the fodder for making messy pages is EVERYWHERE. Look up and you can start a new messy page themed on that, or that, or that, or wait, that…

Left: Step one of my sketch on Canson Plein Air Watercolor Board (Cold Press) was to use an orange Uni Posca Bold (with a 1/4 inch calligraphy tip) to get a quick gesture drawing down on the board. I took a photo at each stage because I like to do that when I'm experimenting—and often post such things on my blog. After each photo I rewound the video to the same section and completed the next stage of sketching, until it came to painting and then I painted based on memory. (This is a photo and colors are not accurate. The board is a cool white and there is beige masking tape on the outer edges.)

But being able to hold the board and sketch and paint standing (in full utility belt) does mean that I can balance using the materials I want to use with the shoulder issue.

And once I knew I could do that this year, instead of just holding in my mind an idea or memory of my ability to do all those things uninjured in past years, my mind literally cracked open. I knew I’d been thinking about the Fair all wrong this year. I’d been so wrapped up in thinking what would be doable with my shoulder and my hand that I wasn’t allowing myself to really think about what I wanted to do. And when I did allow myself in certain moments to think about what I wanted to do I found myself backing off.

In other words, I was treating the Fair as nothing special. It is special.

And thinking about the Fair that way was like robbing it of potential and possibility, and FUN.

You see it doesn’t matter to me if all I come home with is a book of messy pages (or in the current situation, a pouch of messy boards). What matters to me is that I use this time to observe. My entire life has been about observation of people and places, and of course birds. In a busy life such as we all have with family obligations and work I’ve seen a lot of people abandon what really gives them joy; abandon the thing they have always been good at—or that thing which they wish to become good at.

I really want you to hear that it doesn't matter to me about messy pages—in the hopes that you can learn to come out and sketch and not mind messy pages either, but see them as an essential part of your growth: something to be embraced. I really am having a lot of fun doing this. I want you to have some fun too. And you could, if you let go of your expectations for perfection.

I love the Fair because it lets me be the best me possible—the 8-year-old me observing and in love with it all. I’m amazed at the Ginsu knife hawker. I would buy those thirsty Shamwow towels if only I didn’t have to carry them around all day (I already have a lot to carry). I think it’s pretty amazing that you can engineer to cook and serve so many things on a stick. I love having access to animals up close and personal. And I really believe that all people, in their infinite variety, are beautiful. Oh and I really, really like early twentieth century architecture.

You see I really LOVE the Fair, because it lets me enjoy everyone else being the type of silly I never was as a child (because, well that’s a long story, I’ve just always been the kid who talks philosophy with the adults).

Sure sometimes I might be sarcastic about something I see at the Fair—remember I grew up a “lippy” child. I might lampoon someone’s actions or comments. But then if that were evidence of not loving something nothing can explain why Dick and I are still together after all these decades.

So once I realized I was thinking more about getting through the Fair with low expectations, and not thinking enough about the Fair itself, it suddenly hit me that my inability to make a plan for the Fair this year and settle on a paper and approach, was because this is the year that I might need to have two or three, or FIVE plans. I might have to have a plan for every day I go, or for every half day of every day I attend.

Sure this means there won’t be a big mass of stuff on one theme, approach, or experimental premise at the end of the Fair, but it also means I’ll be treating the Fair as I’ve always treated the Fair, as fun.

Left: Step 2 of my sketch. I added black ink lines with the Pentel pigmented brush pen with a squeezy body. Click on the image to view an enlargement. (This is a photo and colors are not accurate.)

As soon as I allowed myself to see not the “bulk” of the Fair Project (if you will, let’s call it that) but instead focused on the act of being and experimenting in whatever “doses” I could tolerate on any given day, then a host of Fair Projects presented themselves to me.

Projects I have no more intention of following through on than I do setting myself up to play piano in a bar somewhere—which incidentally was something I really wanted to do as a child, but abandoned because of the smoky nature of the work environment—and yes I’m aware that in Minnesota smoking is no longer allowed in bars, it’s just that I out grew the piano, but I never outgrew the observation and the drawing.

It doesn't matter if I implement these projects. Having options is always about choice. And in choice there is always possibility, as long as we own and embrace our choices.

But wait, you’re asking, “Roz, this is all fine and dandy, but what did you mean by your post’s title—'Someone Really Wants to Take Gouache to the Fair'?"

Left: Step 3 of my sketch. I have added the blue background using a 15 mm tipped Montana marker. Click on the image to view an enlargement. (This is a photo and colors are not accurate.)

The painting that you see at the opening of this post—it’s watercolor. But I painted it with heavier layers of paint than I typically do for watercolor. I did this because I really wanted to get the gouache out and hide those lines, or only show some of them. And I wanted to have fun pushing the gouache around on the Canson Plein Air Watercolor Board.

Doing this second test told me that I could indeed stand with full gear and sketch and paint on the boards. It also confirmed that I could use watercolor—and that watercolor does some interesting things on these boards (in fact sometimes it is almost repelled from the surface). Ultimately it reminded me that if I want to take gouache I’ll find a way to use it as I have in the past. Maybe that’s a project for one day, just to cut down on what I have to carry.

But this sketch reminded me that whether I take gouache or not I will have fun with whatever I’m using because I have practiced the ways in which I use my various media.

I’ve put in time every day so that when I have a fun opportunity like this I can use my materials any way I want, without expectations, and without disappointments because my life is about experimenting.

I LOVE the Fair because every year it reminds me, sometimes subtly, sometimes like a sledge hammer, that drawing practice is a daily thing. It pays off in increased fun factor regardless of the conditions (physical, psychological, environmental, meteorological, gastronomical, or sartorial) in which you find yourself.

I LOVE the Fair because it asks me to show up, and it lets me be me.

So This Is What I Wrote in Response to the Question about How I Stand and Hold My Palette:

With the little palette it's pretty simple, I just hold it up at the top of the verso page and the edge of the book rests against my lower ribcage.

I do the same thing with my larger square palette or the small rectangular one (which is NOT LONG). But with both of those they have a thumb ring on the bottom, ditto my Whiskey Painter's palette, so they are no problem to hold up there, along with my paper towel.

I am not well-endowed—I have average sized breasts—so they do not get in the way. I have friends who are well endowed and a bit nearsighted who rest the tail edge of their open book on their bosom.

You'll have to hold pressure from your non dominant hand through the book to your torso (wherever you rest it) and keep your wrist loose so you can hold the book at the head with your little finger and ring finger, and have the palette in your thumb and index finger. The paper towel is tucked into the back of the palm so it sticks up just from behind the book, at the hand, so you can manipulate the brush with your fingers if necessary.

But it's really a matter of practicing something so that you find what works for you and is comfortable and safe (for you, your journal and the animals —you don't want to drop stuff they might eat).

Don't be intimidated. Take your journal to the zoo today (if you have time or this weekend) and take three page spreads that will be your test and go for it, testing different positions for each.

If I'm using a dip pen I have a book mark container that's hard to describe, that I made for field work, or a small clip on "ink well" that attaches right to the book via the clip—something suggested to me by a teacher who works in oils at the Atelier, because it's a container normally used for whatever it is oil painters use to thin their paints.) (I'm not an oil painter.)

For the boards I'll have to come up with a slightly different way to hold things as the piece won't "Bend" at the center like a journal, which makes the journal easier to manage (I think). We'll see.

So practice a bit and you'll find something you like. Have fun sketching!!!

Even though International Fake Journal Month is over I'm still working on that Arches Cold Press Watercolor Board with Watercolors. And Dick is still patiently sitting while I sketch him from life.

But now I'm shining a very bright light on him.

Left: Stage 1: The watercolor pencil sketch. I used a burnt orange or sienna water-soluble color pencil—I put the pencil away before noting it down. The progress photos were taken under less than ideal light so the pencil looks a little darker and more brown than it does in life. I taped the edges of the board with wide Nichiban Masking tape. It holds well to the board. Click on an image to view an enlargement.

I've found when I'm working with watercolor I'm not very patient and end up hitting things with the heat gun to dry between layers.

Left: Stage 2: Here you can see the first yellow wash which started to dissolve the watercolor pencil, and the second wash with some of the redder skin color going in. Click on an image to view an enlargement.

The good news is that if I use the heat gun I can finish a sketch like this from pencil to finish in 35 minutes.

The other great news about the heat gun is that it freezes the water-soluble pencil dissolving process. If I don't use the heat gun sometimes all my marks disappear!

Left: Stage 3: This version shows me deepening those shadow areas some more. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

After Stage 3 I started working quickly across the face and didn't need to go out to the kitchen where I'd set up the heat gun. By the time I was ready to return to one portion of the face it had dried sufficiently on its own—so I didn't take any more photo breaks. I just kept darkening the shadow areas. (Though first I painted in the background.)

The splotch on the right of the painting, in the t-shirt area is a bit of color that my hand picked up in the from the taped border where the background wash was still wet. I suppose I could have tried to lift it, but it reminds me that I have to pay attention to those taped edges!

I cut Dick's hair on Sunday night, so depending on how many of these recent sketches I post you'll start to see the shorter hair appearing soon. It was very dramatic when I finished the cut.

While I'm still working out what to do about those eyebrows I'm rather pleased about the glint I got in the light-side eye where the light really bounced through like that.

Each day I notice a little more. And Dick is patient. I'm grateful for that.

(Please note that the entries for my fake journal have all been scanned and are being posted daily from the end of April through May 18. You can see them by clicking on the above link.)

Throughout April Dick was kind enough to pose for both me and at other times for my character. Shown here is one of the real me sketches.

“Is it just me?” I thought, when I finished this sketch, the proportions of which are off—the face oddly narrow when it should be wide and vice versa, and the eyes of course too large, but never blue enough, “or am I married to Calvin?”

I think this sketch looks like an age progression of Calvin from “Calvin and Hobbes” (without of course the wonderful skill and delight of Bill Watterson’s work).

I spent about an hour feeling a little uneasy and then shared my epiphany with Dick as he was walking through the room carrying laundry. “Duh,” he replied, smiling, as he disappeared behind the stairwell door.

Later he popped up again and said, “Wait till Mom sends my picture to Grandma!” (If you’re a “Calvin and Hobbes” fan you’ll know exactly what he meant.

While this latest realization does explain a lot about Dick’s hairstyle choices it leaves several questions unanswered…

All these years I always thought I was much more like Calvin—after all, who was most interested in going to the moon and beyond? Who was surrounded from an early age by characters, some stuffed and some plastic, with which I had, and continue to have, countless adventures?

And who was not only most likely, but probably most eager, to sell her parents to aliens in return for a star cruiser?